Single-trigger gun mechanism.



' J. D. RUSS. SINGLE TRIGGER GUN MECHANISM.

APPLTOATION FILED SEPT. 9, 1911.

Patented Dec. 26, 1911.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

N \m l COLUMBIA PuNooRAPH w..WASmNu1'oN, D. c

V 1.1). RUSS. SINGLE TRIGGER GUN MECHANISM.

APPLIGATION FILED-SEPT. 9, 1911.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

COLUMBIA PLANOGRAPH c0.. WASHINGTON, D. c.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN D. RUSS, 0F SPENCER, WEST VIRGINIA, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO FREDERICK F. McINTOSI-I, OF SPENCER, WEST VIRGINIA.

SINGLE-TRIGGER GUN MECHANISM.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 26, 1911.

Application filed September 9, 1911. Serial No. 648,538.

To all whom it may concern:

Be itknown that I, JOHN D. Russ, a citi zen of the United States, residing at Spencer, in the county of Roane and State of Vest Virginia, have invented new and useful Improvements in Single-Trigger Gun Mechanisms, of which the following is a specification.

An important object, inter alia, of this invention is to provide a single-trigger mecha nism for multi-barrel guns, in which, instead of depending upon more or less weak springs to bring about the change from one releasing position to another, other instrumentalities, permanently positive and reliable in action, are employed for this purpose.

Another object of the invention is to provide a single-trigger mechanism with a minimum number of parts, whereby an ordinary gun-smith may easily understand it, and whereby it may be manufactured and the parts thereof assembled with expedition and at a minimum of cost.

It is also the object of my invention to provide a single-trigger mechanism so constructed that it may be taken to any part of the world, on long hunting trips, without any fear or likelihood of break-downs, or of getting out of order, the mechanism being perfectly adaptable for hunting in jungles and for use on double-barrel rifles, such as are used in African expeditions.

Another object of the invention is to furnish a single-trigger mechanism so constructed that hanging is impossible, the little involuntary pull, caused by firing, being sufficient to put the trigger-mechan1sm into second releasing position, ready to pull at the will of the operator.

Another object of the invention is to provide a novel means whereby double firing is positively prevented.

Another object is to provide a novel form of selective searactuating means, which may be shifted either before or after cocking of the gun, to operate either barrel prior I to the other.

With these objects in view, and others illustrated one form of embodiment of my invention capable of carrying out the underlying objects thereof, and in these drawings: Figure I is a side elevation of the interior of the lock of a gun, with my improved trigger-mechanism applied thereto, showing the position of the parts when the gun is cooked; Fig. II is a section, on the line 22, Fig. I; Fig. III is a similar view, showing the selecting-member moved to the opposite posi tion from that shown in Fig. II; Fig. IV is a side elevation of the parts of the triggermechanism, showing the position of the parts immediately after second releasing movement has occurred, '5. 6.; directly after the second sear has been tripped; Fig. V is a detail view of my trigger-mechanism removed from the gun; Fig. VI is a collective detail view showing, separated, the diiferent parts of my trigger-mechanism; Fig. VII is a sectional view on the line 77, Fig. VI; Fig. VIII is a sectional viewon the line 8-8, Fig. I; Fig. IX is a detail transverse sectional view, taken through'the plate 23 and the bar 15, and showing the position of such parts with reference to the respective hammer-sears when the gun is cocked; and Fig. X is a similar View, but showing the positionof said parts with reference to the hammer-sears, when one of the latter has been tripped and the hammer controlled thereby released to fire the first barrel.

Referring, now, in detail to the drawings: 1 designates the frame of the usual doublebarrel gun. in the sides of which are pivoted the hammer-holding sears 2, 2, provided, at their rear ends, with corresponding, inturned offsets or projections 3, 3, constituting the trippable members of said sears. Oarried by the trigger-plate 41 is a stationary block 5, having a longitudinal opening 6 therethrough, to receive certain mechanism hereinafter described.

7 is. the trigger, having a longitudinal rib 8 projecting into a slot 9 in the trigger-plate 4, and having a lateral, upward-projecting boss 10 pivoted, on pin 11, to the block 5. The rib 8 is provided, near the rear end thereof, with a vertical slot 12, into which projects a pin or screw 13 carried by the trigger-plate at, and by which means pivotal movement ofthe trigger 7 is limited. 'The rib is also provided, in its top edge, at a point between the ends thereof, with an inverted, T-shaped opening or slot 14, for a purpose presently to appear; and, at its rear end, on its upper surface, with an upwardprojecting lug 8 also for a purpose presently to appear.

Disposed immediately above and in vertical parallelism with the rib 8, and projecting through the slot 6, is a bar 15, pivoted, at its front end, on the pin 11, whereby said bar and said trigger 7 have a common axis. Said bar 15 carries, at a point between the ends thereof, a depending, inverted T-shaped member 16, the horizontal cross-arm 17 of which fits loosely in said inverted T-shaped slot 14 in the trigger-rib 8, whereby said bar 15 is loosely united to said trigger-rib and, consequently, with the trigger. By this loose connection, it will be seen that the bar 15 is capable of slight vertical movement, independent of the trigger 7, for a purpose hereinafter to appear. Said bar 15 carries, near its rear end, an upstanding or upwardprojecting part or member 18, having an inclined or curved upper edge 19, for a purpose hereinafter to appear. Pivoted, at one end, as at 20, to the trigger-plate 4 is a leaf spring 21, provided, at its other end, with an angled toe 22, projecting into a groove or channel 23 on the bottom of said bar 15, and bearing upon the top of said trigger-rib 8, and whose function is, as is obvious, to return the trigger to normal position after upward movement thereof. Positioned upon the top of the bar 15, and projecting through the slot 6, is a longitudinally-reciprocable plate 23, having, toward its front end, a longitudinal slot 24, projecting through which is a stop pin, or screw 25 carried by the bar 15, and whereby movement of said plate is limited in both directions. Said bar 15 is also provided, in one of the longitudinal edges thereof, with a notch 26 engaged by the upper end of a vertical tang 27 of a selecting-member 28, comprising a longitudinally-reciprocable slide 29, positioned beneath the trigger-plate 4 and carrying said tang 27, which projects through a slot 30 in the trigger-plate 4. A pin 30 carried by plate 4 and projecting through a slot 30 in member 28, limits reciprocation of slide 29, in both directions. Said plate 23 carries, at its rear end, two oppositelybent, staggered fingers 31, 32, either one of which may be brought, by movement of the plate 23 through the selecting-member 28,

into alinement with its corresponding searprojection 3, to trip this sear and thus release the hammer controlled by this sear, prior to tripping of the other sear-projection 3 and, thus, release of the hammer controlled by said other sear. At the rear end of the plate 23, one of the corners thereof,

which is in proximity to the finger 31 and which is in transverse alinement with the finger 32, is cut away, as shown at 33, whereby, when the plate 23 is reciprocated to the limit of its forward movement, said finger 31 is out of vertical alinement with, i. 6., is removed from beneath, the corresponding sear-projection 3. That edge of-the plate 23 which is in proximity to the finger 32 is cut away, as shown at 34, at a point in transverse alinement with the finger 31; whereby, when the plate 23'is reciprocated to the limit of its rearward movement, said finger 32 is out of vertical alinement with i. 6., is removed from beneath, the corresponding sear-projection 3. The fingers 31, 32 are advantageously clown-turned, at their free extremities, as at 31, 32, so as to engage the sides of the bar 15, to guide the plate 23 in its reciprocation on the bar 15. The for ward end of the bar 15 may be provided with two transverse grooves 34, 34, in the upper surface thereof, into one or the other of which the down-turned forward end 35 of the plate 23 springs or snaps at either extremity of its movement, and, for this purpose, the plate 23 is formed of spring material; and, by the construction just mentioned, the plate is yieldingly held in either of its adjusted positions.

36 is a safety-member. It comprises an upward-extending arm 37 and a lower, forward-extending toe 38, which is pivoted, toward its forward end, on a pin or screw 39, carried by the member 18 of the bar 15. The forward end of the toe 38, in advance of the pivot 39, bears and rides upon the lug 8 of the trigger-rib 8. Carried by the rear face of the safety-member 36, near the lower end thereof, and disposed to the rear of pivot 39, is a pin 40, projecting through a slot 41 in the enlargement 18 of the member 15.

Carried by the enlargement 18 is ascrew, or the like, 42, around which is wound a spring 43, one end of which is disposed in a hole in the bar 15, and the other end of which is secured to the pin 40, the tendency of the spring thus being to raise the pin 40 upward and thus rock the pivoted safetymember 36 forward or: its pivot, as shown in Fig. 5. r

Pivoted to the rear end of the bar 15, as i pivot, will have to overcome the inertia of this block 46. The operation of the safetymember 46 will more fully appear in the description of the general operation of the entire mechanism, at the conclusion of this specification.

48 and 49 are two safety-stops, cotiperating with the safety-member 36.

The operation of the mechanism is as follows: Before the gun is cocked, z'. 6., before the sears 2, 2 are in engagement with the hammers, the rear ends of the scars with their offsets 3, 3 are slightly lifted above the plate 23. In cooking the gun in any manner, according to the construction thereof, the rear ends of the sears 2, 2, with their offsets 3, 3 are depressed, as shown in Figs. 1 and 9, so that one of said offsets bears, wit-h pressure, upon the corresponding finger 31 or 32 of the plate 23 and forces the plate 23 and thus the bar 15 downward, on,

the pivot of the latter, throughout a small are of movement only suflicient to bring the cross-arm 17 of member 16 into'engagement with the horizontal bottom wall of opening 14 (but not sufficient to depress the trigger 7 at all) as shown in Fig. 1, so that, in

pressing upward upon the trigger to bring about first-releasing position of the parts, there will be no lost movement between the trigger 7 and bar 15, but, on the contrary, the very first or the slightest movement of the trigger (when the gun is cocked) will be immediately imparted to the bar 15 and, through the latter, to the plate 23. In the downward movement of the bar 15, as just described, safety-member 36 is caused to swing rearward on its pivot 39, under the influence of the pin 40, which, carried by bar 15, moves downward therewith. The backward-swinging movement of the safetymember continues until its arm 37 is di rectly under the safety-stop 49 (as shown in Fig. 1). The gun is now cocked. The initial movement of the trigger 7 will force the trigger-rib 8, bar 15 and plate 23 upward, whereby tripping-finger 31 or 32 (whichever it may be) which is in engagement with one of the sear-trippable members 3, trips the latter and thereby trips the sear (see Fig. 10) to release the hammer controlled thereby. Further movement upward of the parts is, at this point, temporarily arrested by the top end of the arm 37 of the safetymember 36 coming, in its upward movement,

in contact with the safety-stop 49: thus continued upward movement of the parts, to second releasing position, 2'. 6., to release the second hammer, is blocked, preventing accidental, unintentional, and premature firing of the second barrel, and effectually preventing double-firing. When the recoil takes place, after firing of the first barrel there is a rebound of the gun and a consequent involuntary pull by theoperator on the trigger, which, if no means were provlded to prevent it, would cause premature discharge of the second barrel of the gun. Now, in my construction, during the rebound, caused by the recoil of the gun, as aforesaid, the automaticallyoperating safety-member 46, by reason of its inertia, falls forward on its pivot and bears, with its weight, upon the pin 40, and, before the block 46 can (by the pin 40, under the influence of the spring 43) be moved backward sufliciently on its pivot to allow the safetymember 36 to swing forward (under the influence of said spring 43) from under the stop 49, the period of time when said involuntary pull on the trigger occurs, as described, has passed, and the danger of involuntary, unintentional, and premature dis charge of the second barrel is thus eliminated. In other words, automatic safetymember 46 operates to prevent the top of the arm 37 of safety-member 36 passing entirely from under the stop 49 before said involuntary pull on the trigger (due to rebound of the gun) has occurred; it being obvious, of course, that, by my construction, in order to trip the second sear to release the second, unfired haimner, arm 37 has to pass forward from under stop 49 so that further up-' ward movement of the parts may be effected to release the second hammer, through the hitherto untripped sear. After the first barrel has been-discharged, and recoil has taken place, and the operator has released pressure on the trigger, the spring 21 forces the trigger-rib 8, with its lug 8 downward to normal position. In this downward movement of the trigger-rib 8, the safetymember 36 is released and the latter swings forward on its pivot (through the influence of the spring 43) and the bar 15 is tilted or inclined upward on its front pivot during such forwarchswinging movement of safetymember 36, by reason of the toe 38 hearing down upon the lug 8 of the trigger-rib 8, thus bringing the bar 15 up into contact with the offset 3 on the other sear (which has not been tripped, as yet) (see Fig. 10), so that the next movement of the trigger 7 will (in the manner described above in con nection with the tripping of the first sear) lift the bar 15 and, thus, the plate 23, and trip said remaining sear, to fire the second hammer. When the first barrel has been fired, as above set forth, the automatic safety member 46 occupies a. forward inclined position on its lower pivot, and thus bears upon the pin 40, acting as a drag on the forward-swinging movement of the safety member 36 sufiiciently to prevent double-firing, due to involuntary pull on the trigger; all as in detail explained above.

While I have described above, in great detail, the particular construction of my preferred form of mechanism, yet I am gaged by aware that modifications in detail may be resorted to, without sacrificing the advantages of the invention, and it is to be understood that all such modifications and changes as come within the scope of the appended claims constitute no departure from the spirit of the invention, and fall within the purview of the latter.

In the appended claims, I refer to the member 28 as the selective sear-actuating means, and to the member 15 as a common sear-actuating means.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters-Patent is:

1. A single-trigger mechanism for doublebarrel guns, including hammer-holding sears, a common sear-actuating means, a selective sear-actuating means movable with said common sear-actuating means, and engaging one of said sears in cocked position of the gun, and reciprocable independently and longitudinally of said common sear-actuating means, a trigger operatively associated with said common sear-actuating means, said trigger, upcn movement, moving said common and selective searactuating means simultaneously to trip said sear ensaid selective sear-actuating means, means for temporarily arresting the trigger, after the first discharge, to prevent premature second discharge, said trigger, upon further movement, tripping the remaining sear by said common sear-actuating means, and means whereby, after said tripping of the first sear, said common searactuating means is automatically brought into engagement with the second sear prior to said further movement of the trigger.

2. A single-trigger mechanism for double barrel guns, including hammer-holding sears, a common sear-actuating means, a selective sear-actuating means reciprocable independently of said common sear-actuating means to position the same to trip a predetermined sear, and engaging the latter in cocked position of the gun, a trigger operatively associated with said common searactuating means, said trigger, upon movement, moving said common and selective sear-actuating means simultaneously to trip said predetermined sear by the selective sear-actuating means, means for temporarily arresting the trigger, after the first discharge, to prevent premature second discharge, said trigger, upon t'urther movement, tripping the remaining sear by said common sear-actuating means, and means whereby, after said tripping of the first sear, said common sear-actuating means is automatically brought into engagement with the second sear prior to said further movement of the trigger.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for 3. Asingle-trigger mechanism for doublebarrel guns, including hammer-holding sears, a common sear-actuating means, a selective sear-actuating member reciprocable independently and longitudinally of said common sear-actuating means to position the same to trip a predetermined sear, and being provided with staggered sear-engaging fingers and with cut-away portions adjacent said sear-engaging fingers, a trigger o-psratively associated with said common sear-actuating means, said tr1gger,' upon movement, moving said common sear-actuating means and said selective sear-actuating member simultaneously to trip a predetermined sear by one of said fingers, means for temporarily arresting the trigger, after the first discharge, to prevent premature second discharge, said trigger, upon further movement, tripping the remaining sear by said common sear-actuating means, and means for automatically bringing said common sear-actuating means into engagement with 'the second sear through one of said cut-away portions after said predetermined sear has been tripped and before said further movement of the trigger.

4. Asingle-trigger mechanism for doublebarrel guns, including hammer-holding sears, acommon sear-actuating means, a selective sear-actuating member reciprocable independently and longitudinally of said common sear-actuating means to posit-ion the same to trip a predetermined scar, and being provided with staggered sear-engaging fingers and with cut-away portions adjacent said sear-engaging fingers, a trigger operatively associated with said common sear-actuating means, said trigger, upon movement, moving said common sear-actuating means and said selective sear-actuating member simultaneously to trip a predetermined sear by one of said fingers, means for temporarily arresting the trigger, after the first discharge, to prevent premature second discharge, said trigger, upon further movement, tripping the remaining sear by said common sear-actuating means, and means, including a spring-controlled member carried by said common sear-actuating means, whereby, after said tripping of the predetermined sear and before said further movement of the trigger, said common sear-actuating means is brought into engagement with the remaining untripped sear through one of said cut-away portions.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto'set my hand in presence of two subscribing witnesses.

JOHN D. RUSS.

lVitnesses:

JOHN KIRK, Amos E. KENNEY.

five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. G. 

